Handball

News from Romanian handball

Florin Orban, 14.01.2015, 13:36

Romania’s under-21 national handball team has secured its qualification for this coming summer’s World Championship. In the last-but-one game of the preliminaries hosted by the southern Romanian town of Pitesti this past Sunday, the Romanians managed a 27-26 win against Slovenia. Previously Romania secured yet another win against Bulgaria, 38 to 29, and managed a 23-all draw against Croatia. Our national team thus came on top of the table in the sixth preliminary group, with 5 points on its record sheet. In terms of points, Croatia stood on par with Romania but had a poorer goal average. The World Championship’s final tournament is scheduled in Brazil over July 19 — August 2.

Domestic championship leader HCM Minaur Baia Mare are on a training stage in the Croatian city of Porec. The Romanians are to play three games against three of Croatia’s league one teams. Games have been scheduled on January 15, 17 and 19, and the Romanians will be traveling back home immediately after they have played their training stage fixtures. HCM Minaur Baia Mare’s first official game will be played on January 28, against Poli Timisoara; the match counts towards the domestic championship’s 16th leg.

Between January 21st and 23rd Dinamo Bucharest, 3rd-placed in the men’s National Handball League, will be taking part in an international tournament in Saint-Etienne, France. Dinamo will be facing such strong teams as French championship leader Montpellier, Saint Raphael or Club Africain de Tunis. On January 22nd, Dinamo will be taking on Saint-Raphael, while Montpellier are pitted against Club Africain. On January 23rd, the winners of the two games will be competing for the top position, while the defeated teams will be fighting for the 3rd place in the tournament.

We go out with news from women’s handball. Defending champions HCM Baia Mare’s newly-appointed Slovenian manager Tone Tiselj had an auspicious debut game in the domestic championship, as Sunday night on home ground HCM Baia Mare defeated the southern Romanian team SCM Craiova, 28-15, in the 14th leg of Women’s National Handball League. This is for the first time when 53-year old Tone Tiselj is at the helm of a Romanian team. The peak moment of Tiselj’s career was the Champions League title he won with Krim Ljubljana, in 2001 and 2003, respectively.